Signal gain control circuits



Sept. 9, 1952 LE ROY MOFFETT SIGNAL GAIN CONTROL CIRCUITS 2 SHEETS-SHEET Filed Dec. 31, 1946 Ul/TPUT INPUT INPUT SIGN/1L T T E W R Y O E TM M N O EY T VO m M E L Y B .I W 7 0 M" 5 A E n LF. v .1 W I N0 m n 3 II 2 lw I? M. I ||||--L m H mm 5 M I MW w m N F. M

Sept 1952 LE ROY MOFFETT 2,610,260

SIGNAL GAIN CONTROL CIRCUITS 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Filed Dec. 31, 1946 m/pur 35 A I I l l AAAA INPUT 37 Q 05+ I W II INPUT C o l 5/ t 70 5 b our/ ar 53 15 A 5; (mo/u CAT/{0055) 1 45 may COUPLING INVENTOR LE ROY MOFFETT ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 9, 1952 Radio Corporation. of America, a corporation of I Delaware i i Application December 31, 1946,"Serial N0. 719,403

zonims. (01. 179-471) This invention relates to signal gain control, and more particularly to improved video gain control systems.

The control of gain in electric signal transxnissi'on circuits for control of various effects has 'become increasingly important with the advent of television and its numerous requirements for :stage eiiects demanded by thepublic as a result of the highly perfected and successful technical teonftrol exercised in present day motion pictures.

It often becomes important in the transmission of broad band signals that distortion due to di- :rect current surgesresulting from rapid changes :in gain or instantaneous switching between rchannels be reduced to a minimum because such :surges change the information present in such :signals. This becomes particularly important in athe transmission of video signals which emplol "wide frequency bands including low frequency :component as low, for example, as the field repetition frequency.

It will be understood that theimage signal must convey information both as to the instantaneous amplitude which corresponds to the brightness of the image element scanned at the instant or the instantaneous aspect of the signal,- and the image signal must also include an average value that corresponds to the average illumination of the scene. This may be termed as the'steady-state aspect of this image signal,

and is usually referred to as the D.-G. compo-- nent. The instantaneous and D.-C. components of the image signal may vary independently of one another. The instantaneous component provides the detailed information, while the D.-.C.

component provide background information. For example, a given scene superimposed on a bright background gives the impression of sunlight, brightness and warmth, while the same details superimposed ona dark background may convey theimpressi on of moonlight, darkness and cold. The latter provides an exactly opposite effect on the image, although thedetail remains substanwhere changej'in the average output voltage of the i system. i t

The primary object ofthis invention is to providel animprovedsain control circuit forthe Ip is platecurrentr transmission of signals involving low frequencies and slowly changing direct current components. Another object of this invention is toprovid'e an improved television system wherein distortion resulting from direct current surges caused by rapid changes in gain or switching is reduced to a minimum.

Other and incidental objects of theinvention i will be apparent to those skilled in the art from .I a reading of the'following specificationand an inspection of the accompanying drawing which Figure 1 shows by circuit diagram one'pr'eferred form of this'invention involving a single channel circuit having a constant average value output voltage;

Figure 2 shows schematically the equivalent circuit diagram of the popular cathode follower. J

circuit;

Figure 3 shows another preferred form of this/1 invention in circuit diagram and illustrates the Figure 4 shows graphically the operation of thepreferred form of this invention shown in I Figure 3; and

Figure 5 shows by circuit diagram still another i ft form of this invention.

It is well known that voltage variations on the grid of a tube have much greater effect on the plate current than do changes inplate voltage. When a resistance or other impedance is; placed in' series in the plate circuit, the voltage drop across it, which is a function of the plate cur-f rent flowing through it, is controlled by thegrid A small change in grid voltagecauses' voltage. a large change in voltage across'the loam in other words, the grid voltage is amplifiedin the plate circuit.

The characteristics of vacuum tubes withcat hode, grid and plate elements involve the relationships between grid voltage, plate currentand Plate voltage. The measure of the amplification of Which a tu e is capable is known as its amplification factor and is the ratio of plate volt-- age change to the grid voltage change dE, I p constant a is amplification factor Ep is plate voltage Ex is grid voltage tive load impedance is now held nearlyconstant at the higher frequencies. The combination of. R1 and inductance 9 compensate for the shunting: effect of the tube T1 capacity and other circuit capacities. V

Condenser II is employed asaby-passcon 4 plate voltages used to produce this current. The mutual conductance Gm also increases as the plate current is increased. This follows from the fact that where Gm is expressed in mhos eamplification factor of tube R =plate resistance (dynamic) in ohms Theamplifioation factor remains substantially constant. Therefore. the mutual conductance denser to block signal but pass the controlexer-i cised by tube T2.

Acathode resistor RK is employed to obtain the}ireq'uired grid bias" for tube T1; As is'well known'jin the art, "the tube current flowing through cathoderesistor Rx develops a potential drop' across'resistor RK. The cathode of tube T1 islg'therefore 'held' at" a positive potential with resp'ect'to ground by the drop which 'eifectively places the grid negative with respect to the oathode 'by theamount of. the voltage drop, because the"grid"of*'tube Tris substantially at ground potential; The valued the cathode resistor is determinedby the bias required and the plate current which flowsat the value of bias, as found from lthei tube characteristic curves. Normally resistanceRfi is shunted by a capacitor to providea' low impedance path to groundfor the A.,.C. .co,mponent of the. plate current which result'sffrom'an, A.-C."input signal to the grid. A small by pass condenser can be employed across (mthOGETI-Z'SiStOIXRK. to improve the high'irequlency. response of theamplifier and stillfsecure degenerationat midglow' and DJ-C. ranges of signal "and, control voltages. However, in this, preferred formof'the invention, such jacathode by pass condenser is not employed. The omission of thby-Dass. condenser causes negative feed-back" or degeneration. Although'degenerationreduces the gainin anamplifier; an object of thisinve'ntion is to control the amount of gain, and notto provide amplification. Furthermore, thejinclusionof degeneration improves the opera-. tio'nstabilityand reduces distortion in the amplifier;.-,,

Itljwillbeiremembered that aprimary object.

of the invention is to providea control of gain plate-current change/Al is related to the mutual conductance by the equation AI,=AE,G,;.E

'8E, dE, E v constant where E is theplate voltage. 7

In any tube the mutual conductance .Gmqdew pends primarily upon the plate current,- and only.

a small extent upon the combinationofgridand 1.

varies inverselyasR Therefore, due to the fact that the mutual conductanc'e Gm increases as the plate current is increased and assuming a constant plate voltage, a change in grid bias in a positive direction willlower thev dynamic plate resistancewR aor increasethe mutual conductanceGm. An in:-

crease in mutual conductance Gm will. cause the same change in grid voltage Eg to have a greater effect onthe-plate current Ip.- Increasingthe grid bias .in a positive direction therefore. in-.

creases-the amount of change in plate currentl with a given change .ingrid voltage E It will beremembered, however, that an in-.

creasedplatecurrent Ip causes a greater drop in the load resistor and consequently a drop in plate voltage- E An auxiliary tub-e T2 is connected in the circuit to perform two functions It changes the bias on.

tube T1 and at the same time compensates for, the

change in plate. voltage. T2 is connectedtothe-cathode of tube T1.

intermediate itsends, in this circuit between re .sistances R2 and R3. The control electrode of. tube T2 is connected to a variable b-ias sourcev such-as the potentiometer 13 with an associated bYrDELSS condenser 15.

Tube. T2 functions to control the bias oftube T1 and compensate for changesin plate voltag e;.,'

as .follows:

The cathode of. tube The I; anode of tube'T2 is connected. to the load resistor increases ;-in a positive direction .and therefore increases inya negative direction thebias on the grid of tube Tu This results in a lowering of the gain oftube'Tn Furthermore, the-increased 7 current through tubeflzcauses a greater voltage dropin resistance Reto compensate for the decreased drop in resistances R1, R2 and R3 due to,

thereduced plate current intube T1: upon 3.11.1111. 7

creased; negative grid bias.

Conversely, when the gain :control ;p enti0m:- eter l3- is-moved. in a negative direction; :tubeT2 draws lesscurrents Ex,the-potentiahofwthe,

cathodes," decreases. Thisdecreases-the negative 1 bias, on-the grid of tube-T1. 1 The gain oftube.: I1,,,,

is increased. Furthermore, the decreased current,"

throughtube Tzycausesa Smaller: voltagedrop :in

resistor, :Rxctoj .compensateyforethe greater. drop. 1;

in; resis tances R1; R2 and, R21 due .toxthe .greater 1.

rid bias.

. Althoughythechangesinimpedance; ofgtube T2,;

changegtheeifective resistanceofthe: cathode-.re-t.

sistorland therefore; the; amount of, degeneration;v

to the change in degeneration is small andsmay a dssmnin npractical;.values;.for;:resistances Bi and R2, resistance Ra may be found by, solving the following equation: 1 1

where 1..., Iz=plate currents for minimumgain 11b, I2b=plate currents for maximumgain Turning now to Figure 2, there is shown-the equivalent circuit for the cathode follower principle employed in thecircuit diagram in Figure 3. The signal applied between grid and ground is represented by an equivalent generator with an output voltage of em. The degenerative voltage developed across the cathode resistor is represented by an equivalent generator with an output voltage of ipRk. Theminus sign indicates that the degeneration reduces the voltage effective in driving current through the tube. Since the net voltage acting in the circuit is ,u.inp.ipRk the currents which flows inthe output is 1 l 'in' l v K be...

p v+RK p+ K(P-+ L The output voltage is CRK="RK=% ,e #RK e... T..+RK(1 +1) where a is the amplification factor of the tube, Rx is the resistance in the cathode circuit and 131 is the A.-C. plate resistanceof the tube. As the denominator is always greater than the numerator, it is evident that the gain of the cathode follower is always less than unity.

Changes in @111 must necessarily appear partly as a change in the bias in order to produce a change in plate current, and only the remainder of the input voltage is available to appear at the output.

A change in voltage across Rx is caused by a change in plate current resulting from a signal on the grid. This change is in the same direction as the applied signal, and therefore no polarity inversion results. It will be understood that polarity inversion is normally obtained in ordinary amplifier circuits.

It might be added that cathode follower systems have several advantages, one of the advantages being that the efiective input capacitance between grid andground is less than that for the same tube used as a conventional amplifier. This is because the degeneration reduces the effective input voltage below the applied value, causing less current to flow through the tube capacitances. Furthermore, because of the high constant input impedance, the cathode follower has negligible load effect on the circuit employed to drive it. The output impedance of a cathode follower is extremely low and may be employed directly for feeding low impedance circuits.

Figure 3 shows by circuit diagram the employment of one form of this invention involving cathode follower systems.

Signal A is applied to tube T1 through condenser 2 I. Signal B is applied to tube T2 through condenser 23.

Both tubes T1 and T2 employ a common cathode resistor 25.

Auxiliary control tubes T: and T4 are connected in parallel with the common cathode re- 6. sis'tor .2 5 such that the anodes of tubes T3 and T4 are connected to the cathodesof tubesTi and T2 and the cathodes. of tubes T3 andTr are. connected to a pointof fixed potential or ground. This effectivelyplaces the impedance of tubes T3 and T4 in parallel with thecommon cathode resistor 25. The impedance of tubes T3 and T4 is controlled by varying, their grid bias in potentiometers 21 and 29 whose actionis mechanically coupled to-u getheras illustrated. 1

A change in bias of tubes T1 .and T2 is em ployed for changing their gain. The effect of changed bias on tubes T1 and T2 of Figure 2 is similar in effect to that explained indetail in connection with the gain control exercised in the circuit illustrated in Figure 1.

The change in bias on tubes T1 and T2 of Figure 3 in opposite directions is obtained from potentiometers 21 andZQ through'grid resistors 3| and 33, respectively. 1 1 A brief reference-to the graph illustrated in Figure 4 willexplain the operation of the circuit shown in Figure 3 in lreeping constant the average or no signal voltage in the output circuit.- The current through tube T1 is illustrated as I1, that of tube T2 as 12, tube T3 as 1a,:and tube T4 as I4. The systems shown by circuit diagram in Figure 3 may be employed for lap dissolves, the current of one control T1, for example, is increased as the current on the second control tube T2 is decreased. Near the middle range of these currents, the currents add up to substantially a constant value, however, near cut-off bias the tube being cut off will decrease its plate current much less than the other tube picks up plate current. This is due to remote cut-oft: characteristics of vacuum tubes. The net result is a change of current Ix through the common cathode resistorRx. Two auxiliary tubes Ta-and T4 compensate for the remote cut-oif charac'-' teristics of the. control tubes T1 and T2. The direction of the current of Ta and T4. through Rx is opposite to that of T1 and T2, therefore Is. is equalto 1 and if the tube characteristics are properly matched, will hold IK and thus Ex constant. This is clearly indicated in the graph shown in Figure 4.

Turning now to Figure 5, thereis shown another form of this invention wherein lap dissolve between more than two difierent signal input circuits may be controlled. Thereis shown in Figure 5 an input A to be impressed on the, control electrode of tube 35, input B to be impressed on the control electrode of tube 31. and input Q to the control electrode of tube 39. There is a separate cathode resistor for each of the tubes 35, 31 and 39. For purposes of explanation, theseparate cathode resistors will be designated as resistor 4| for tube 35, resistor 43 for tube.3l-, and resistor 45 for tube 39.

Auxiliary tubes 41, 49 and 5| are connected in parallel with cathode resistors 4!, 43 and 45, respectively.

In accordance with the explanation given above for the circuits illustrated in Figures 1 and 3, the gain of tubes 35, 31 and 39 may each be controlled by varying their grid bias potentials. By increasing the negative grid bias potential, the gain of the tube may be reduced substantially.

It will be remembered, however, that a change in biasing potential will cause a change in the direct current voltage component in the output.

circuit; and-" although suchfi 'chan'ge issspartiaily compensated "for by ithe opposite change in: direct current wolta'ge' output componentl-of the sassociat'ed channel-the compensation is notcomplete; as: explained in connection with-the :'circuit diagram of Figure 3 and-the graph of Figure 4. The lack of complete compensation may be suflici'ent to-cause objectionable Idistortion under certain circumstances. This change direct current voltage component in :the output circuit is compensated for in each ofthesignal channels A, 'B and C by "the auxiliary tubes 41, and 5!, respectively.

-Dua'lpotentiometers 53 and 55,.whicha're preferably mechanically coupled together provide the, desiredbiasing. potentials in a manner.- similar to that explainedzregarding :the' circuitshown in Figure 3 "above.

The ope ra'tion of the circuit'shown in Figur'e5 may-:best lee-explained by'illustration. For example, assume that it is desired to fadeifrom the signal applied to input A tothe signal applied to input Cand thenfade from the signal applied to inputrC' 'to thesignal applied to input B. A double pole 'double throw switch 51 will be in the downward position. The pointers ofthe' potentiometers Hand 55 will be at the right end of their respective resistance elements. By .moving the pointers of :the potentiometers 53*: and 55 to the left-thesig-nal applied toinput A will fade. out.- while the-signal applied to .input C is' faded ins '-Switch 51 is then :th'rownnpward; and-the potentiometer :pointers' fare moved to theairight. This will causethe signal'appli'ed' to ::-input to fadeout and the:.signal" applied to. input- B to, fade in. I 7

Otherfading combination possibilities become apparent.

During the change in position-eithe pointers of :potentiometers 53 and 55, it will be-seen. that the bias potential applied to the controlrelectrodes of'tubes 35, -3.1 and '39 will. be changedfto such anextent that the current flowing through each of thetubeswi'll vary widely. Even though. the change in current is in opposite direction; and therefore the efiect on the output circuit is somewhat balanced out, there still remainsan irregularity 'which'iscorre'cted bythei'simultaneous "change inim'pedanc-e' of auxiliary tubes- 41, 49 and Forexample,*when'thebias potentiall of tube 35 is increased in .a positive direction,"

- thus tending toc'ause ariseinpotentiai 'of its associated cathode, the "impedance "bftliloe. 41 '.'is' decreased by "the more "positive biasing 'I otential applied *to' its control electrode. This tends to; reduce the "positive 'potentialqof the cathode" of tube 35 to suchadegree that the curvature 'i'n'th'e tube characteristic" curve .i'si'compensated :for as illustrated indetail in the" graph shown inFi ure' 4; Similar-"action takes "place inthe circuits1 including tube 37 "and auxiliary tube 49 and the circiiit lncluding -tube 39 and its associated auxiliarytiibe 5|.

Although the circuit shown inFigure fiis'illustratedrempioying a cathode foiiowerfcutput circuit, a plate circuit outputihaving-za uniform direct current voltage component regardless of channel switching oriading-maybe by compensating in the plate circuit for direct current voltage changes due to switching, in accordance with the system shownand described in the cir cuit illustratedinFigure l.

Having thus described theinvention, what is claimed-is: Y

'1'. A *signal mixer= comprising in combination, a pair of amplifier tubes eacir Having-"acontr'ol electrode;-sai'dpair of tubes having acomm'on cathode" follower output circuit, a pair of "control' tu'bes; each having a control'e1ectrode,"said control tubes both connected in parallel with said output circuit, a source of control electrode bias, a me'chanically operated variable-resistanceconnected between s'aicl source of bia'siand one' "of said amplifier-tubes and one of said-control tubes, at second mechanically operatedvariable resistance connected between said source of bias and the other of said amplifier tubes and the other of said control 1 tubes, *a *mechanical' coupling between said mechanically operated variable resistances said mechanical couplingconnected to simultaneously change the resistance value of said resistances in opposite directions.

2. A television-image signal ,fader comprising in combinationaipair ofamplifi'ertubes having separate input circuits and common cathode follower output circuits, a pair of control tubes, each of said control :tubes c'onnected in parallel with said outputcircuits, a source of 'bias'forsaid tubes, apair of means mechanically coupled differentially to each other-and toasingle control means-forv simultaneously. changing the control electrode bias on one of saidamplifier'tubes and on one of saidxcontrol tubes in one direction and at the same time simultaneously changing the controlselectrode bias on the other of said amplifier-tubesand the other ofsaid control-tubes in theother direction.

LE ROY MOFFET'I.

REFERENCES .CI'IED 1FIhe' following references \are of record;- in-the file-ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name 'Date 2,069,809 Armstrong .Feb. 9, 1937 2,227,056 Blumlein et a1, as. Dec. 31, 1940 2,244,239 TBlumlein et al. u June 3,1941 2,284,102 I Rosencransnasmugs May 26, 1942 2,363,985 YMoser acumen-cu Nov. 28, 1944 2,412,;2'79 Miller, Jr.. .Dec. 10, 1946 2,485,665 Shepherd sen-"u h- Oct-.25, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 485,854 Great Britain May 25, 1938 i 540,834

'. Great Britain Oct. 31, 1941 

